After winning the seventh-generation with the Wii, Nintendo has fallen on hard times in the hardware market. The Wii U has been swamped by Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. However, the Japanese company always has an ace up its sleeve thanks to its famed games. Now, Microsoft’s Xbox head, Phil Spencer, says he would like to see Nintendo games on Microsoft’s platform.

Nintendo’s propriety games like Mario and Zelda are enormous successes. Indeed, even though the Wii U has struggled for sales, it would have tanked completely without famed titles, particularly involving Mario.

For the most part, Nintendo has resisted the urge to spread its icons across platforms. This makes sense for the company to keep customers coming to its own consoles. However, the market is changing and Nintendo had to yield to introduce games to mobile.

Phil Spencer would like to see Mario and the Nintendo gang take the next step and come to other consoles. In an interview with AusGamers he said:

“I’d love to see Mario on Xbox. As someone who’s been in this industry and played games forever, I’ll still say it: Nintendo has the strongest first-party of anybody. They’re just fantastic and the memories that they have instilled in so many of us, who’ve played their games and had those delightful experiences, having those on Xbox would be great.”

Xbox Characters on Nintendo Games

The Xbox chief points to Microsoft working with Nintendo to bring Minecraft to the Wii U. He says this shows the companies can work together. Spencer also said that he would be open to Xbox character showing up in Nintendo games:

“I know I get questions all the time on would I ever like to see Banjo in Super Smash Bros. and I’m, like, “yes, I would do that in a second.” And certain people think I’m saying that as some sort of PR answer and I’m, like, why wouldn’t you?”

Of course, this is all amazing and a gamer fantasy, but ultimately it is just unlikely to ever happen. While character cross over is conceivable, we doubt a fully-fledge Mario game would ever make it to Xbox.

Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.